The present invention relates to computer networking, and more specifically, this invention relates to management of volumes in a computer network architecture.
In any network architecture where some components may be simultaneously in use by other components, it is advantageous to provide means of managing the connections between the components so as to avoid breaking any connection under inappropriate circumstances.
For example, if a volume is in use by a plurality of systems of an architecture, it is advantageous to manage access to that volume such that any operation which would disrupt the operation of systems connected to the volume is prevented. In order to accomplish this feat, conventional systems query each system in the architecture to determine whether a device is grouped with the system (in the same path group) using the device's device address.
However, this conventional approach is time-consuming and burdensome. Each time an operation that might disrupt operation of one or more systems is received, this query procedure must be conducted, while holding off other requests that may be incoming while the query is being performed. At best, this slows architecture operation, and at worst can result in an overwhelming backlog of requests building up while the query procedure is repetitively performed, which may result in some requests being dropped or never processed/responded to.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide systems, methods, and computer program products enabling rapid, computationally efficient determination of device associations in an architecture without relying on the conventional query procedure.